Transparencies

600x600-contain

large

Bonniers Konsthall

Sharjah Art Foundation

Darat Alfunun

Bonnefanten

Series of 12 Duratrans C-prints in light boxes (backlit paper).
65 x 81 cm each.
Produced with the support of Darat al Funun–The Khalid Shoman Foundation, Amman. 
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Transparencies depict the breeze-block shells of unfinished housing developments on the outskirts of Amman, abandoned since the 2008 global financial crisis hit the region. These &#8216;new ruins&#8217; of the contemporary Arab world are devoid of any lived history; empty shells awaiting narratives that may never occur. They represent a vision of modern living that is now ghostly and decaying, not unlike the ideology that underpinned it. The photographs are presented as a series of negative light boxes resembling x-rays, enhancing the skeletal quality of the structures. At the same time, Sarkissian bestows an almost monumental quality on the hollow and life-less spaces.